Reserve Pits

Patterson’s fear is about what are called reserve pits. The earthen pits are dug on the site of a drilling rig. Into the pits go thousands of barrels-worth of drilling waste. The waste comes back up out of the well as the drill cuts thousand of feet down into the earth. The waste can be a muddy, oily mix of saltwater, sand, and drilling fluids and can contain chemicals and diesel fuel.

Texas does little to regulate the pits. For most reserve pits, Texas does not require permits or inspection. They can be left unlined (as compared with sanitary landfills for household trash which are extensively regulated). Texas rules do state that the pits shouldn’t pollute surface or groundwater.

“Generally speaking, it is a very precarious situation. It’s sort of a toss of a coin if the regulations have any effectiveness at all,” Patterson told StateImpact Texas.

Concern over Leaching

The pits have caused concern for decades. A 1987 national report to Congressby the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, which was recently published by the New York Times, said that “leaching of reserve pit constituents into ground water and soil is a problem in the Texas/Oklahoma zone. Reserve pit liners are generally not required in Texas and Oklahoma.” (Most states do not allow unlined pits according to an overview by a Houston law firm).

The EPA report said that without the benefit of a liner, there was a “higher potential” for pollution including “barium, chromium, and arsenic” to reach groundwater.

Alternatives to On-site Pits

Some of the major exploration companies have now stopped using pits in favor of “closed-loop” or “pitless” systems. The systems use big tanks in which drilling waste can be separated and, in some cases, recycled.

According to an emailed response from the Railroad Commission of Texas, which polices the drilling industry, “a common industry practice includes operators using above-ground steel tanks instead of reserve pits to store drilling fluids.” What percent of drilling operators are using the tanks the Railroad Commission didn’t specify.

“Between 60 and 70 percent of the drilling waste generated is put in these reserve pits as opposed to being sent to a company like ours,” said Bradley Zarin, R360′s Director of Government Affairs.

“It doesn’t have to be buried on site. We have facilities that can handle all kinds of waste streams coming from the drilling process and dispose of that waste, treat it, or recycle it responsibly,” said Zarin. He said some of the drilling waste is converted to an asphalt base the Texas Department of Transportation uses to build roads.

Water Testing in North Texas

The Railroad Commission told StateImpact it does not know of “any confirmed groundwater contamination cases related to reserve pits.” Spokesperson Ramona Nye wrote in an emailed response that the risk is minimized by drillers who “will generally line these pits if there is a risk of fluid loss” that would be a violation of water pollution laws. Nye added that “drilling muds” as the fluids are also called, are “designed to build up an impermeable layer to prevent fluids from leaking out of a wellbore or a reserve pit.”

In North Texas, Bob Patterson, the groundwater conservation manager, said there have certainly been fears that waste might eventually leach into water supplies. But testing isn’t required of private wells and the district has a total of some 6,000 private and public wells registered in its four counties.

So now, the district is trying to collect at least 100 well water samples in four counties (Wise, Parker, Montague and Hood) and analyze them for chemicals used in the drilling process. The district is working with scientists at the University of Texas at Arlington. They hope to have results by this fall.

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Comments

Article seems to be a bit short on facts on regulations regarding pits.

While reserve pits do not require a permit, the Railroad Commission in Statewide Rule 8 does establish requirements for treating and closure timing of pits.

Depending on chlorides of the contents pits fluids must be treated/dewatered in 30 days and pits closed in 12 months.

The article leads the reader to believe pits and contents remain long after drilling is completed. Simply not the case in reality.

Ed Ellis

they don’t line pits because the mud is in a closed system and removed and the end of the well. un-informed article!

Amy Drosche

FM1624 near Lexington, Texas, Lee County TODAY TXDOT hurriedly resurfaced a long stretch of road with black goo and rocks. The road was fine and paved before. Does this mean my tax dollars just paid to have some oil company’s waste disposed of and now my roads are gravel and smell horribly? 07/07/14 Never seen a road “resurfaced” so fast. BTW that’s not “building new roads” either.

gpwebster

What makes American Free Enterprise “free” is that protecting the environment and really cleaning up production pollution is not a normal cost of business. “Slash, burn and move on” has been the American way for over 200 years. The move to closed loop systems is to be lauded. Recent articles in the Express-News indicate too few producers are concerned about recycling drilling fluids (proprietary unknowns), gas flaring, or pollution of the air and water. The environmental damage lasts generations.